Ceará claim derby win with five Cidade Vozão players | OneFootball

Gabriel Silva / Ceará SC

In the 2-1 victory over Fortaleza last Sunday, the 17th, in Brasileirão B, Ceará finished the match with five players developed at Cidade Vozão. In addition to starters João Gabriel and Melk, Enzo Lodovico, Giulio, Pedro Gilmar, and Sanchez — promoted to the Club’s professional squad in 2015 — took the field and contributed to the win.

Melk was the standout player of the match, contributing to the 1st goal and providing the assist for the 2nd. The goal scored by Melk also featured the involvement of three of the five players. In the play, João Gabriel passed to Enzo Lodovico, who set it up for Melk to finish into the corner.

Head coach Mozart, in the post-match press conference, praised the performance of the academy players and commended the work done by the Club in developing young athletes.

“We finished the derby with five players developed here at the club. On the first goal, the goal was practically created by players developed at the club: João, Enzo, and Melk. So, I also want to open this parenthesis to talk about this club’s development work. I’m really inheriting a very good setup from the academy. Alison, who is with us today, really coached these boys. They have a very strong understanding of what to do on the pitch. And one thing they are bringing us, coming from the academy into the first team, is a sense of belonging,” said Mozart.

In the Clássico-Rei, the head coach of the Most Beloved named nine academy players in the squad, making up 39% of those called up. In addition to those who took the field, Gustavo Martins, Kauã Ziegler, Pedro Gilmar, and Pedro Esli, recently promoted to the professional squad, were options on the bench.

“The fact that we had nine academy players called up for a Clássico-Rei is the culmination of planning that began in 2019 and confirms the excellent work carried out in the youth ranks. It is also important to congratulate everyone who is part of the day-to-day work at Cidade Vozão,” highlighted the Director of Youth Categories, Israel Portela.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇧🇷 here.